Firefox
by Link McCloud
Summary: After curiously surviving an Arwing explosion, Krystal finds herself trapped in her derelict spacecraft and sends out a distress signal. The signal is picked up by a certain girl on a small transport ship...and the crew decides to rescue her. Rated T.


**Disclaimer: Star Fox and its characters are the property of Nintendo. This means that I did not create them nor do I take credit for them.**

**Note: Oh hey look, a NEW STORY. AAAAAAH. Hopefully I'll actually write more chapters and update this story, unlike after Chapter 10 of TCoW and that single chapter LoT...hm, well, we'll see. For now, read this. I think it's pretty good.**

Firefox

Prologue

She sat slumped over her Arwing controls, listening to the ear-pounding silence. As far as she could tell, she was perfectly alone. No one was watching. No one else was nearby. She wasn't completely sure why she was in such a position. She wasn't even sure that she was there herself. She couldn't remember a thing; or rather she didn't want to try. She just sat there, content with sitting in her lame position.

A long time later, or maybe no time at all, she became aware of her violently beating heart, and the sheering pain that engulfed most of her body. With a groan and a wince, she tried to lift her arms, but she couldn't feel her right arm at all. Her heart beating faster, she gradually lifted and laid her left arm on the control panel of the small spacecraft. With another strained groan, she pushed herself slowly and painfully off of the console.

Her back hit something sharp, and she let out a weak, startled yelp. She slowly opened her eyes, but when she lifted her eyelids, something salty caused her left eye to sting; she closed them both again. She lifted a paw and, after feebly rubbing it on her thigh to get any foreign object off of it, placed it over the left side of her face; a warm substance met her touch. Making sure she kept her left eye closed, she slowly opened her right eye and looked wearily at her paw; it was covered in blood.

She let out a worried moan, and closed her eye in despair. She lowered her paw to her thigh, hoping that she would be able to tear a piece of her flight suit to wipe off the blood. Leather and a small bit of fur presented itself to her touch, and opening her right eye again, she looked down at her left leg, to see that most of the thigh portion of her flight suit had been torn apart. She moved her paw underneath her thigh, and, shaking her paw to get some of the loose blood off, she pulled at the cloth segment of her suit; a good size piece separated from it with little effort. She brought the piece of cloth up to her face, and rubbed the blood-soaked side of it. She felt the cloth absorb most of her blood, and after a little more rubbing, she lowered her paw and opened her eye, to gratefully find that it did not sting.

Now that she was able to see properly, she laid the piece of cloth on the floor board and turned around in the cockpit, to find out what had stabbed her in the back. The Arwing was equipped with an incredibly comfortable seat, its backrest made of several layers of foam, gel and leather. Upon looking behind her, she discovered that the backrest was shredded to pieces, and several sharp metal rods and bent plates were protruding into the cockpit in its place. She mused over this a little bit, then, a slow and gradual realization of what could have caused the back plating of the cockpit to bend inwards swept over her. She turned back towards the controls of the Arwing.

Several lights flashed into her eyes and many alarms blared harsh noises into her eardrums, causing her to flinch. From "life-support system failure imminent" to "severe structural damage", she was surprised that she wasn't awoken from all of the lights and alarms and that she didn't notice them up until now. Lifting her arm, she softly tapped the central control screen, and it flickered on, half of its digital screen shattered. She frowned upon seeing this, as the option she needed to access was in the shattered portion of the screen. She closed her eyes, and after a minute or so, her paw moved over the upper-right hand quadrant of the screen, and tapped it. Nothing happened, so she tried again, jabbing at it a little harder. What was left of the small screen flickered over to the structural damage report, and she gazed down at it, leaning a little closer to get a better look. From what she could tell, the G-Diffuser was missing, with a few wires protruding out of the back, the left wing was gone, but the right was still intact, though folded in, like it would be if the Arwing was docked. She couldn't see the nose's condition, as the screen was cracked at that part of the ship, and the cockpit window was cracked all the way around, though she could see that just by looking around. Weapon systems and navigation controls were offline as well.

She tapped a small green dot where the G-Diffuser should be, and the screen flickered over to a digital camera that was still miraculously operational. She leaned a little closer, almost close enough for her nose to touch the screen, and peered at the image sent by the camera. She could see that the four G-Diffuser support thrusters were completely gone, and the main thruster was barely recognizable. What caught her attention though was a long piece of a curious looking metal protruding from the back of the Arwing. The metal piece had a purplish sheen to it, and there were many hexagonal shapes all over the very glossy piece of debris. The piece itself looked like it had been damaged as well, as none of the edges were uniform. She had a feeling that she had seen that type of metal fragment someplace before, and she stared at the digital image of the foreign fragment for several minutes, trying to remember where she'd seen it…

"_All ships, evacuate at maximum velocity!" ordered Fox, swiveling his Arwing around, the G-Diffuser support thrusters flaring. "Let's go!" His Arwing shot upwards, away from the collapsing, unstable core of the Aparoid Homeworld._

_Three other Arwings quickly followed suit as the narrow tunnel around them started to collapse. Dozens of the metal pieces that lined the tunnel were now detaching from their mounted positions and floated into the tunnel, creating very dangerous obstacles that the Arwings needed to avoid. Some of the pieces were quite large, and a couple of the Arwings had a hard time dodging them._

"_Careful team!" advised Fox. "If you get by one of those pieces, you're done for!"_

"_How dare you say that Fox?" yelled Falco, as he rolled out of the way of an incoming piece of debris. "That's almost an insult, saying that to me! I'd never get hit some piece of junk!" He boosted ahead of Fox, dodging many pieces of debris on the way. Fox grinded his teeth._

"_Now is NOT the time to be showing off Falco!"_

"_Who said I was showing off?"_

"_I would!" piped up Slippy. "It's hard avoiding all of ARRGGHH-" he rolled out of the way of a long piece of metal and plasma that was about to impale him through his cockpit. "Aahh…all of these random pieces!"_

"_Don't worry Slippy." soothed Krystal, boosting up next to the nervous toad's Arwing and looking over at him. "If you concentrate, you'll get out of here just fine!" She saw him look at her shakily; she could barely see him grin through the fragments of metal flying in between them. Setting her sights forwards, she dropped back a bit and effortlessly rolled out of the way of another metal fragment hurtling towards her Arwing._

"_Oh really?" taunted Falco. "The only thing that Slippy could concentrate on is those dinky little mechanic magazines or staring at Amand-"_

"_SHUT UP FALCO!" shouted Slippy, and he boosted forward to catch up with Falco. Unnoticed by him, however, was an irregularly shaped and sharp piece of debris that was heading straight for him._

"_No, wait SLIPPY!" screamed Krystal. "STOP BOOSTING! YOU'RE GOING TO GET HIT!"_

_The team heard a grunt then a crack. "Th-th-the thruster lever broke! I CAN'T STOP! HELP!"_

_Fox and Falco were too far ahead. There was no way they'd be able to get back to him in time. If she pushed him out of the way, there would not be enough room or time for her to get out of the way; her Arwing would be obliterated. But she had to. There was no way around it._

_Everything seemed to slow down for her. All the noise vanished from her ears and she could feel her heart thumping aggressively against her chest. In almost a trance-like state, she punched a green button on the right side of the control panel; the Arwing tucked in its wings, and Krystal pushed down on a foot pedal; the Arwing started rolling three times faster than normal. She then, even through the massive G-forces generated by the rolling, lifted a small glass lid covering over a switch labeled "Micro-Warp Drive: USE ONLY WHEN FLIGHT PATH IS CLEAR". She flicked the switch, and pushed the thruster lever forward._

_Before anyone could even think about reacting to her decision, she shot towards Slippy's Arwing near warp-drive speeds, and slammed into the side of it, shoving it out of the way of the incoming fragment. The impact damaged both of their Arwings, Krystal's more severely than Slippy's. A G-Diffuser support thruster was ripped off, her left wing was snapped like a twig, and her cockpit window cracked and bent inward. Krystal herself would have been thrown out of the cockpit she wasn't wearing her safety harness, but the force of the impact dislocated her right shoulder. Before she could get her bearings, the jagged fragment collided with her Arwing's main thruster, shattering it instantly. The piece intruded deep within the interior of the Arwing, hitting all vital equipment within the small fighter. The only thing that stopped it from going through the cockpit and pilot was an ultra dense, six inch thick substance that lined the area around the cockpit. The piece of debris hit the substance with the force of one hundred and seventeen smart bombs, and the substance bent and warped out of shape like it was made to, but the force of the impact was too strong._

_The foreign piece shoved the dense substance into the cockpit, striking Krystal on the left side of her face. Her head was thrusted into the control panel and with a brutal thud, she was knocked out cold, blood flowing freely down the left side of her head. The Arwing slowly stopped spinning, while more debris bombarded the now stationary spacecraft._

"_KRYSTAL! NOOO!" wailed Fox; he pushed on the brakes to come to a complete stop and started to turn around to go back to her._

"_No Fox!" shouted Falco; he slammed into the side of Fox's Arwing to prevent him from turning around. "There's nothing you can do! The planet is about to explode! You wouldn't get out of here in time!"_

_"BUT-THERE-HAS-TO-BE-SOME-WAY-" spluttered Fox, whose Arwing was rocking back and forth, seemingly trying to decide: himself or Krystal?_

"_There is no way you can reach her safely! With all these pieces around, there's a chance you would get hit too Fox!" beseeched Slippy, whose Arwing lost it's right wing and two right G-Diffuser support thrusters from Krystal's impact. He boosted up to Fox's other side, boxing Fox in between himself and Falco. "We have to keep going!"_

"_NO…! I GOTTA-GET…to…" Fox's cry was cut short as Krystal's Arwing exploded; it disappeared in a brilliant flash of light and plasma. Fox heard her brief, shrill death scream rack through is mind; his heart skipped several beats and he started shaking heavily. No…she couldn't be…she couldn't be dead…_

"_FOX! DAMNIT, C-COMEON!" yelled Falco, who was now behind Fox's Arwing, shoving it forward roughly; Slippy had shot ahead at the site of Krystal's exploding Arwing. "IF YOU DON'T MOVE IT, WE'LL LOSE YOU TOO!"_

_A piece of debris glanced off the side of Fox's cockpit window, snapping him to his senses. He regained his composure somewhat and shoved the thruster forward, leaving Falco behind before the avian realized what happened. Fox had to get away. He had to get far away from where her Arwing exploded. He couldn't bear to be near where she died._

_As Fox, Falco and Slippy shot out of the surface of the planet and flew away from the rapidly collapsing planet, Fox thought he heard a small voice in the back of his mind:**"…Goodbye…Fox…"**Hearing her voice caused him to turn around, but the moment his eyes laid upon the planet, it exploded. Billions upon billions of fragments of the former Aparoid Homeworld flew right past Fox, Falco and Slippy, as though they were being protected by some invisible force field._

"…_We made it…" mumbled Slippy, slowing his Arwing down to a stop. "The Aparoids... they're gone…it's over."_

"_But at what cost?" grumbled Falco, stopping next to Slippy. "So many casualties…so many noble sacrifices…first Peppy…then O'Donnell and his team…and now…"_

"_Someone I couldn't bear to lose…" finished Fox, tears welling up in eyes. "I can't believe she's gone...I…I-I didn't even…g-get a chance…to say…t-to her…that…I…I…"_

_Falco and Slippy didn't need their closest friend to finish his sentence. They both moved over to his Arwing, one on each side, and they looked over into Fox's cockpit. Only the top of his head was visible as he wept over the controls of his Arwing, his head bobbing up and down with each sob. Falco and Slippy looked at each other through Fox's cockpit window; they couldn't find the words to comfort him._

_Not even Peppy's reemergence could halt Fox's weeping. The aged hare's cheerful welcome was cut short as he noticed that one Arwing was missing. Fox barely heard him ask who wasn't there nor did he hear Falco and Slippy's responses as he continued to cry silently in his Arwing._

_She's gone. No matter how much he loved her, no matter how much he tried to protect her, it still happened. She ended up dying, just as he feared she would when she joined the team. He should have done something sooner. He should have talked her out of going into the center of the planet. He could have even tried to convince her to leave the team. He would have even forced her to leave the team for her own safety. But none of it matters anymore. She's dead._

_"…Fox…where is he now? Is he OK? Is he still grieving over what he thought was my death? Why am I **not **dead? How am I still here?"_

These questions ran through Krystal's battered mind as she pulled herself out of her thoughts. It was incredibly puzzling that the Arwing was still in relatively one piece after it exploded...or did it explode? What happened? The fact that she was still alive and that the Arwing wasn't disintegrated didn't make any sense whatsoever. Whatever had happened, she concluded, she can figure out later. But for now, she needed to get somewhere safe.

She tapped the screen to close the rear camera. As soon as the screen flickered back to the main selection screen, it suddenly started flashing a red and yellow message erratically: "Inco- -oid-. -asive -neuv- -ended".

Before she could make heads or tails out of what the cut-off message was, something massive hit the side of the derelict Arwing, knocking Krystal violently about inside. Another alarm went off, and this time Krystal recognized it instantly: the life-support system was failing. The object that hit her must of damaged the life-support system to a point where it was incapacitated.

With her right arm still numb, Krystal frantically started pushing buttons around the cockpit with her left, trying to see if she could turn the life-support back on. Nothing worked; a few of the buttons and switches caused the Arwing to groan, while one unfolded and re-folded the remaining wing. Finally she pressed a button that prompted the message "Distress sig- s-ding" on the control screen. Krystal easily saw that the Arwing started sending out distress signals.

She started pushing more buttons, to see if the Arwing was capable of doing anything else, but nothing other than the "retract wings" worked properly. She tried to peer out of the cockpit, but every inch of the reinforced laminated glass was cracked all the way around, and she couldn't see a thing.

Krystal could already feel the effects of the oxygen slowly leaking out of the Arwing. Feeling drained, drowsy and defeated, she placed her arm over the controls and laid her head on it. If she was going to die, she might was well focus all of her mental prowess to aid the distress signal…maybe luck will still be on her side…

A long, high pitched scream swept through the passenger dorm of the small transport ship. An old man with puffy white hair, who had been reading a Bible, jumped at sound of the loud noise. He snapped his Bible shut, placed it on a nearby table and stood up off the chair he was sitting on. He quickly walked over to his cabin door and opened it, then rushed over to the other side of the small hallway to one of the other rooms. He slid open the door to find a young girl balled up in the corner with her hands over her head while her brother knelt over her, trying to comfort her.

"What happened?" asked the old man, as he walked over to the pair in the corner.

"I don't know…she just woke up and started thrashing and screaming…" responded the young man, trying to hold a damp cloth to the girl's head, but she kept shaking him away. "I thought she stopped having those nightmares…it must have been a bad one; it was a pretty long drawn out-" he was cut off as the girl started mumbling.

"Xocf…xocf mo'…'A'm t0adw…'…'Xocf mo…"

"What's she saying?"

"Don't know…seems like another kind of gibberish she's made up…"

"Blue…body…pain….distress…xocf…"

"Blue body? What are you-"

"'Xocf mo fcoujo! A'm t0adw...xocf...'"

"What are you talking about? What does "xocf mo" mean?"

"'Help me please!…I'm dying…help' she says…life support failed…gotta…help…"

"Help who?" pressed Simon Tam, "Who needs help River?"

"Body of blue…got into my head…plead for help… repeated coordinates…she's nearby! We need to save her! I need to tell the Captain!" yelled River, jumping to her feet and running out of her room, knocking her brother over and brushing past Book as she sprinted to Serenity's bridge.

**(Additional) Disclaimer: The TV series "Firefly" and its characters and elements belong to Joss Whedon.**

**Ending note: And there you have it. A Star Fox/Firefly crossover. I think this is going to be interesting, don't you? Now before any of you Firefly fanatics ram me into a wall and shout "WTH n00b! THER R NO ALIENS N TEH FIREFLY. R-MOVE HERZ NAO.", calm down. I am a fan of Firefly too (otherwise I wouldn't be writing this) but this is a work of "fiction", meaning "not entirely real". Random stuff that doesn't make sense tends to happen in works of fiction.**

**Now one more thing...as you may or may not know, the characters' dialogue in Firefly doesn't exactly follow proper grammar. I will do my best to mimic this grammar from the show. But don't shun me if I fail to get it right the first few chapters. Gimme some time.**

**That's it. kthxbai! o/**


End file.
